Assassinations and Attempted Assassinations

News about Assassinations and Attempted Assassinations, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

Mar. 1, 2015

Russian authorities are investigating murder of Boris Nemtsov, but many opposition supporters suspect killing was ordered by the Kremlin in retaliation for his criticism of Pres Vladimir Putin and Russian involvement in Ukraine conflict. MORE

Feb. 17, 2015

Veteran communist leader and outspoken political critic Govind Pansare remains in critical but stable condition following shooting attack in central India; Pansare's wife Uma is wounded less seriously in attack. MORE

Feb. 15, 2015

Special Tribunal for Lebanon in The Hague, established by United Nations in order to try case involving assassination of former Lebanese Prime Min Rafik Hariri, faces challenge of showing that delivery of true justice is possible; tribunal is trying five members of Hezbollah in absentia due to reluctance on part of Lebanese authorities to arrest them. MORE

Dec. 19, 2014

Tunisian fighters with Islamic State are claiming responsibility in video for the assassinations of left-wing politicians Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brahmi in 2013; are threatening more assassinations before Tunisia's presidential runoff. MORE

Dec. 12, 2014

Trial ends in suit brought by Robert Oswald, whose brother Lee Harvey assassinated Pres John F Kennedy, against Baumgardner Funeral Home; Oswald seeks financial penalty from home for auctioning younger Oswald's original coffin, which was replaced in 1981 after exhumation; funeral home counters Oswald relinquished ownership of coffin by making it 'gift' to deceased brother; judge's ruling is not expected until late December. MORE

Dec. 4, 2014

Authorities in Venezuela charge leading opposition politician Maria Corina Machado with taking part in plot to assassinate Pres Nicolas Maduro; Machado denies involvement in plot. MORE

Nov. 2, 2014

Several lawmakers from Israeli Prime Min Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party are part of small but vocal group advocating increased Jewish access and prayer at Jerusalem's Temple Mount; Israel closed the site after counterterrorism forces killed Palestinian suspected of shooting Yehuda Glick, Israeli-American and leading advocate for increased Jewish access at the site. MORE

Oct. 30, 2014

Yehuda Glick, Israeli-American agitator who has pushed for more Jewish access at hotly contested Temple Mount religious site in Jerusalem, is shot and seriously wounded by unidentified assailant in apparent assassination attempt; shooting increases fears of further violence in city, where Israeli housing expansions have been causing strife with Palestinians. MORE

Aug. 15, 2014

Aide to former Yemeni Pres Ali Abdullah Saleh says Saleh's security team uncovered plot to kill him with explosives planted in tunnel running to mosque inside his residential compound in Sana. MORE

Aug. 9, 2014

Medical examiner in North Virginia rules death of former White House press secretary James S Brady a homicide, 33 years after he was wounded in an assassination attempt on Pres Ronald Reagan; ruling could allow prosecutors in Washington, where Reagan and Brady were shot on March 30, 1981, by John W Hinckley Jr, to reopen the case and charge Hinckley with murder; Hinckley had been found not guilty in 1982 by reason of insanity. MORE

Aug. 2, 2014

Gunmen kill Somali lawmaker Aden Madeer as he leaves mosque in Mogadishu; he is fifth member of Somalia’s Parliament to be killed by insurgents in 2014; militant Islamist group Shabab claims responsibility. MORE

Jul. 30, 2014

Suicide bomber in southern Afghanistan kills Hashmat Khalil Karzai, cousin of Pres Hamid Karzai and powerful supporter of presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani; no person or group has claimed responsibility for the attack. MORE

Jul. 24, 2014

Jul. 5, 2014

Former senior military officers Luciano Benjamin Menendez and Luis Fernando Estrella are sentenced to life in prison for death of Bishop Enrique Angelelli during Argentina's military crackdown on suspected leftists in 1976. MORE

Jul. 4, 2014

Jul. 4, 2014

Homemade bomb that exploded prematurely on July 4, 1914, killing four people in a Lexington Ave tenement building, was part of an assassination plot against John D Rockefeller, whose family was embroiled in what has been called the deadliest labor dispute in American history; a century later, a jagged scar in the building's facade reminds passersby of structure's forgotten past. MORE

Jun. 28, 2014

Op-Ed article by author Simon Winder speculates on how European and world history might have differed had Archduke Franz Ferdinand, leader of the Austro-Hungarian empire, not been assassinated in June 1914, precipitating start of World War I; holds that destruction of the empire unleashed evils previously inconceivable and says centenary of the assassination must be viewed by millions of Europeans as a solemn event. MORE

Jun. 27, 2014

Salwa Bugaighis, Libyan civil rights activist who helped propel 2011 uprising against Col Muammar el-Qaddafi, is assassinated at her home in Benghazi; killing silences a lawyer who tried to broaden Libya’s notions of rights and citizenship. MORE

Jun. 27, 2014

Nationalist and sectarian passions continue to haunt Bosnia, which was ravaged by a civil war just two decades ago; nation is even now the scene of dueling efforts to define the legacy of Gavrilo Princip, Bosnian Serb who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, setting off World War I. MORE

Jun. 21, 2014

Lebanese security forces arrest 17 men in two Beirut hotels on suspicion that they were plotting to assassinate prominent Lebanese Shiite leader and speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri; Lebanese officials say suspects are believed to belong to Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. MORE

Apr. 29, 2014

Crisis in eastern Ukraine takes dark turn as Kharkiv Mayor Gennady A Kernes is gravely wounded in assassination attempt and masked antigovernment militants seize control of Konstantinovka almost effortlessly; violence is followed by pro-government rally in city of Donetsk that is broken up by rival pro-Russian crowd. MORE

Apr. 29, 2014

Gennady A Kernes, mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine, survives surgery after assassination attempt but remains unconscious and in critical condition; shot that almost killed Kernes may yet prove fatal to the city as it seeks to maintain fragile political balance without his guiding hand. MORE

Apr. 25, 2014

International tribunal investigating the killing of former Lebanese Prime Min Rafik Hariri charges two leading Lebanese journalists--Ibrahim al-Amin and Karma al-Khayat--with contempt of court and obstruction of justice over publication of confidential information about possible witnesses for the prosecution; tribunal has charged five Hezbollah members in car bombing that killed Hariri, based on elaborate reconstruction of telephone records. MORE

Apr. 2, 2014

Mar. 12, 2014

Political killings continue to plague Libya in aftermath of 2011 revolution that ousted Col Muammar el-Qadaffi from power, with over 1,200 people killed nationwide in two years; political divisions within elected General National Congress have left it unstable and powerless to bring order. MORE

Feb. 21, 2014

India's Supreme Court rules that Tamil Nadu state government cannot immediately release three of the seven prisoners serving life sentences for assassination of former Prime Min Rajiv Gandhi in 1991. MORE

Jan. 19, 2014

Hatian Judge indicts nine people, including close associates of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in political assassination of radio journalist Jean Dominique. MORE

Jan. 17, 2014

International tribunal opens hearings into 2005 killing of Lebanese Prime Min Rafik Hariri by truck bomb; absent from trial are the four men accused of the killing who have been shielded from arrest and prosecution by Hezbollah. MORE

Jan. 15, 2014

United Nations Memo; trial to investigate 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Min Rafik Hariri has become another friction point in sectarian conflict spilling over into country from Syria; Hezbollah, Shiite group that supports Syrian Pres Bashar al-Assad, has been implicated in Hariri's murder, casting doubts on group's claims of being Lebanon's defender. MORE

Jan. 13, 2014

Hassan al-Droui, Libya's deputy cabinet minister, is killed by gunmen in first assassination of senior government figure in country since ouster of Col Muammar el-Qaddafi in 2011; assassinations of military and police officers, usually assumed to be work of Islamic extremists, have been increasing in eastern cities of Benghazi and Darnah. MORE

Jan. 4, 2014

Assassination in Beirut of Hassane Laqees, Hezbollah's master technician and logistics expert, has become a political whodunit infused with the complexity of a convulsing region's shifting alliances and enmities; Israeli operatives remain prime suspects, but several other factions have also been considered. MORE

Dec. 11, 2013

Truth Commission in Sao Paulo concludes that Juscelino Kubitschek, Brazil’s president from 1956 to 1961, was murdered in 1976 in conspiracy by the military dictatorship ruling Brazil at the time; commission is one of various such entities in Brazil examining abuses during military rule. MORE

Dec. 5, 2013

Hassane Laqees, major Hezbollah figure tied to war in Syria, is assassinated outside Beirut. MORE

Nov. 24, 2013

CBS soap opera As the World Turns, whose live telecast was interrupted the day John F Kennedy was assassinated, has become the memory uniting its viewers. MORE

Nov. 23, 2013

Dallas embraces its place in American history as it never has before, holding its largest, most elaborate and costliest tribute to Pres John F Kennedy upon 50th anniversary of his assassination there; thousands gather at city-sponsored ceremony for Kennedy that local leaders hope will also help heal the city, which has long been stigmatized by his death. MORE

Nov. 22, 2013

Many veterans who took part in funeral proceedings for Pres John F Kennedy are gathering on 50th anniversary of his assassination for their second, and probably final, reunion; in interviews, several agree that although they were too young at the time to appreciate the historical significance of their deeds, within a few years they knew the nation had changed for good. MORE

Nov. 22, 2013

Fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of Pres John F Kennedy highlights widespread idealization of his presidency as a last moment of innocence in American history; reverie obscures darker fact that country had already become a divided, dangerous place by 1963. MORE

Nov. 22, 2013

Selection of Americans who were alive at the time recall the moment they heard the news of Pres John F Kennedy's assassination on Nov 22, 1963. MORE

Nov. 20, 2013

Advertising column; television stations and publishers, as the 50th anniversary of President John F Kennedy’s assassination nears, are preparing promotions--some of which are raising eyebrows. MORE

Nov. 19, 2013

Nov. 17, 2013

A O Scott examines role of Abraham Zapruder, ordinary citizen who captured 8-millimeter footage of Kennedy assassination in 1963, in the evolution of film. MORE

Nov. 17, 2013

Op-Ed article by Marshall scholar James McAuley warns the city of Dallas must reckon with its own legacy as 'city of hate' and the role its character played in the assassination of Pres John F Kennedy; laments Dallas will likely miss yet another opportunity as it commemorates the 50th anniversary of his death. MORE

Nov. 15, 2013

Cathy Horyn observes that most famous artifact from day of John F Kennedy's assassination--Jackie Kennedy's bloodstained pink suit--has been kept from public view; this single item, which captures both shame and violence of that day and glamour and artifice that preceded it, is now preserved by National Archives in climate-controlled vault and is subject to Kennedy family restrictions that it not be seen until 2103. MORE

Nov. 11, 2013

Unidentified attacker shoots and kills Safdar Rahmat Abadi, Iranian deputy minister of industry, in first reported assassination of a senior national official in Iran in years. MORE

Nov. 10, 2013

Paul Gregory article recalls his friendship with Lee Harvey Oswald, fifty years after the assassination of John F Kennedy; contends he realized he watched Oswald transform into an assassin. MORE

Nov. 3, 2013

Loose Ends column by author Christopher Buckley reflects upon weird and tragic events that occurred in 1963, in addition to Pres John F Kennedy's assassination; notes that the muscle relaxant drug Valium was introduced that year as well, and posits that perhaps it arrived just in time. MORE

Oct. 17, 2013

Investigators in Brazil will exhume former civilian presidents Joao Goulart and Juscelino Kubitschek to examine claims that they were assassinated in 1976. MORE

Oct. 11, 2013

International court indicts Hassan Habib Merhi as fifth suspect in 2005 killing in Beirut of Rafik Hariri, former Lebanon prime minister; prosecutors say Merhi is a member of Hezbollah. MORE

Sep. 13, 2013

Bulgaria's chief prosecutor closes case on Georgi Markov, defector and outspoken critic of country's communist government, who was killed at London bus stop 35 years ago in one of the most infamous assassinations of the cold war. MORE